Melanie Duffin, BACP

Melanie Duffin is a wellbeing counsellor who focuses on practical help for everyday worries. She works with people dealing with stress, anxiety, family conflict, trauma and abuse, grief and low self-esteem. Melanie aims to make the first step easier by offering a steady, non-judgemental space for people to talk about their thoughts and feelings.

Melanie holds a degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy and is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP. She draws on a mix of approaches including cognitive behavioural ideas and acceptance-based work to help people notice unhelpful thinking and try small, manageable changes. Sessions also use client-centred listening so the person leading each session is the client, with the counsellor supporting and reflecting back what matters most.

Attachment-based ideas inform how she looks at repeated relationship patterns and feelings about trust or abandonment. Jungian perspectives are sometimes used to explore personal meaning and deeper themes that show up in clients’ lives. Across these methods the emphasis is on practical steps and clearer thinking rather than labels or jargon.

Melanie has around 10 years' experience working with people on common life stresses and long-term concerns such as chronic illness or caregiving strain. She aims to tailor sessions to what each person needs and to help clients build everyday tools for coping and making choices.

If you want to start, use the Start Therapy button and complete the short matching questionnaire to arrange next steps according to the counsellor's availability.

How Melanie’s approaches translate to online work

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, stress and habits people want to change. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting thinking patterns that keep problems going and practising small changes to reduce distress and improve coping. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns affect current trust and communication, which can help with repeated relationship difficulties and feelings of abandonment.

Finding the right blend of approaches is part of the process. The counsellor works collaboratively to decide which methods might help most, based on the person's goals, needs and preferences. That means sessions can shift over time as priorities change and new issues come up.

Confirm the current session formats before booking, as the biography does not specify them. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life - for example allowing shorter check-ins during a lunch break or removing travel time to a clinic. It can also let people choose options that suit their energy levels, like phone conversations when video feels tiring, or camera sessions when visual cues help the conversation. Registered or accredited professionals and therapists use these choices to help people build practical routines and steady progress.